This rare painting of Shadakshari Lokeshvara is an iconic example of painting carried out in the style of Situ Panchen Chokyi Jungne (1700-1774) from Palpung Monastery in Eastern Tibet. Situ Panchen Chokyi Jungne was one of the most influential masters in Tibetan art history. He was a prolific painter, translator, founder of Palpung monastery, and the editor-in-chief of the Derge Kangyur. He developed a unique style of painting at Palpung monastery which derives from the Khyenri style of painting. Most of the Palpung paintings in the style of Situ Panchen employ a minimalist style. The unique characteristics of the style, as evidenced in the present painting, are the open background and sparse landscapes combined with bold and expressive figures floating in the composition. The deities primarily follow the Khyenri style which Situ Panchen in particular mentions in his biography as one that must be copied and emulated, especially for deities. Situ Panchen explains in the colophon of his famed Avadana painting set that his style comes from the traditions of Chinese scholars, while the buildings, people, and clothing are depicted like those he saw in India.
The present painting depicts a form of the bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara known as Shadakshari Lokeshvara, with two of his four arms arranged in anjalimudra in front of his chest and the other two holding a mala (rosary) and lotus. His skin is painted in a luminous white, and Situ Panchen was famous for painting single compositions in a single day as gifts, usually of white-skinned deities such as White Tara, White Manjushri, etc. Shadakshari sits on a lotus blossom which emerges from a pool below, and is backed by billowing clouds in an open, minimalist composition, as is typical for Situ Panchen-style paintings. At the top of the painting, Amitabha, red in color, is seated above an image of Shakyamuni Buddha, and the two buddhas are flanked by Manjushri and Green Tara at left and right, respectively. At the bottom center, Chakrasamvara Heruka with consort is backed by a flaming aureole carried out in the characteristic Khyenri style. The pair are flanked by deities on mule and horseback.
The four human figures seated on clouds just to the right and left of Shadakshari’s head provide the most information for the historical context and dating of the painting. At far left, wearing a red cap and holding a vase in his left hand, is likely to be Situ Panchen Chokyi Jungne himself, based on other images of the personage; the presence of the vase in his hand, which has traditionally meant to convey the person is still living, suggests the present painting was possibly made in the lifetime of Situ Panchen. To his proper left, a figure wearing a black hat can likely be identified as the Thirteenth Karmapa, Dudul Dorje (1733-1797), who was a student of Situ Panchen and was jointly recognized as the reincarnation of the Twelfth Karmapa by Situ Panchen and Katok Tsewang Norbu, who in the present painting is seated at the far right wearing a red cap and black shirt. At Tsewang Norbu’s proper right, another figure in a red hat is likely to depict the Seventh Tsurpu Gyaltsab, Kongchog Ozer (1699-1765). This grouping of important historical Kagyu figures from roughly the middle of the eighteenth century suggests the painting might have been carried out in the lifetime of Situ Panchen Chokyi Jungne and distinguishes this particular work from the larger corpus of works that were carried out in the Palpung style into the nineteenth century.
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